The other day, I mentioned to a new acquaintance my work as a TV critic for this magazine. I won’t elide the point: I was bragging. As sometimes happens, however, my boast spun around like a boomerang and knocked my teeth out. “There is much to criticize!” my friend replied with a laugh. That shut me up quickly enough, but it also captured the truths that make this corner of the reviewing business so thrilling and vexed. 

There has never been a better time to watch television. Say what you will about shopping malls, pop music, or the fortunes of the American factory worker, TV is one realm in which those of us now living definitively haven’t missed the parade. In 1976, the Emmy for Best Drama went to Police Story, a campy procedural that claimed its prize by beating a Columbo “Sunday Mystery Movie” on NBC. Fifty years later, likely competitors for the award include Pluribus, The Pitt, and Slow Horses, entertaining and finely made choices all.